Winter Haze From Himalayas to Mouths of Ganges, India and Bangladesh

A thick haze seems to flow along the foot of the Himalayas, spilling across the Indo-Gangetic Plan, over the mouths of the Ganges and over the Bay of Bengal. Haze in this region in common in the winter months, and likely results from a combination of urban and industrial pollution, agricultural fires that have been burning in northern India since late October, and a regional meteorological phenomenon known as a temperature inversion. Temperature inversion occurs when cold air settles over northern India and traps warmer air and pollution closer to the ground – the inverse of what occurs normally, with hot air rising and dispersing pollutants.